Also, USADA is about 5x more expensive (often $100,000) than VADA. So it's odd that certain promoters, mainly Golden Boy, absolutely refuse to work with VADA after two of their fighters were popped by them (Peterson and Berto). I personally think it has to do with the fact that USADA will only inform the promoters when a fighter is tested dirty, whereas VADA informs the promoters, the fighter and the commission. The latter has resulted in the cancellation of fights.
This was really brought to light when Paulie Malignaggi specifically requested VADA testing against Adrien Broner. “I wanted VADA testing,” Malignaggi recalls. “And I was told, ‘No, we won’t do VADA. If you insist on VADA, there won’t be a fight.’ Finally, I said, ‘F— it. I’m getting seven figures. I’ll go ahead and fight.’ Would I have been more confident that Broner was clean if there had been VADA testing? Absolutely.”
Paulie wanted VADA because of the Broner vs DeMarco testing by USADA, or specifically the lack of testing. Even though USADA testing was in the contract, requested by DeMarco, neither fighter was tested. "I had heard stuff about what had happened in the DeMarco fight, where they were going to test him and didn’t test and all this stuff,” Malignaggi said on Friday. “I had really pushed for VADA testing in the beginning of the negotiations. They said ‘No, it’s not going to happen.’ So when I had to settle for USADA and it didn’t happen, I was like, ‘What’s going on?’